The Internet: Musings

For many people right now, it is easy to take the Internet for granted.  Especially the younger set, which has grown up with the Internet being there when they boot up their computers.

Most of us do not even think twice about going online and doing the things that we do: searching for price quotes for a new car insurance online, purchasing a new Stephen King on Amazon.com, greeting a friend on his birthday on Facebook.com, or reading the New York Times online.

The Internet has proven to be a pervasive influence on the lives of just about anybody who has access to it.  In a way, it has become a way of life for millions of people.  However, as recent as 15 years ago, things have been very different.

Admittedly, the World Wide Web and other areas of the Internet have revolutionized business and commerce, offering new and often unlimited ways to put your products into the hands of your customers and into the awareness of your potential buyers.  Retailers and sellers are no longer restricted to a certain locality to sell their goods.

Sales and marketing are not the only business areas that have been improved by the Internet, every other aspect from human resources and recruitment to customer service and after sales care has found their niches on the Internet.

The Internet has changed the way we study, work, interact with people.

It used to be that people needed to be close to one another, keeping in touch means proximity.  If friends and family were far away, communication was often carried out by phone or letters.  With the Internet, communication is much more instantaneous and personal.  Now a father in Dubai could very well have a video call with his wife in Atlanta, Georgia.  The written communication arrives in minutes, be it in the form of e-mail or a blog post.

In the years past, coming up with a thesis or a term paper usually meant hours spent at the library scouring the shelves for information that one would need to find in stacks of books, periodicals and other references.  Even when one finds the right book, time must be spent reading several pages before finding the information one needs.   Now, search engines have not only made academic research more convenient but also a lot faster.  With well selected and carefully chosen keywords, you can have the information you need in a matter of minutes, seconds even.

The Internet has also changed the office landscape and the way we work.  It used to be that employees and teams were required to be at the same physical location in able to effectively do their work.  Having offices at different locations often meant more operational costs in the form of higher travel, telephone, cable, courier and other attendant costs.  Right now, the most progressive workplaces are those that know how to leverage the power of the Internet to improve their operations and reduce their costs.  This means that they can use the Internet to help them get the best talents from all around the world, while having the tools they need to, still keep on top of their operations.  Indeed, the growth of outsourcing trend and widespread globalization has been fuelled and made possible, in part, by the Internet.

No other technology has been seen before could rival the influence of the Internet on daily life.  From enhancing the way people get their entertainment, to keep informed, to finding love, to bringing people together for various reasons, the Internet mirrors and ultimately enhance real life.

More than 1.7 billion people all over the world have experienced the convenience and the power of the Internet.  It is ironic that the Internet began as a simple network with three stations, connecting researchers at three American universities in the 1950s.  Back then, nobody would have thought that this set up would be the origin of a truly global and infinitely life-changing network.

Recent data released by the Miniwatts Marketing Group estimates that the number of Internet users grew by more than 380% within the past decade.  And with only about a quarter of the world’s population currently connected, along with the advent of new technologies that makes the Internet available to previously unconnected areas in the world, the Internet is sure to grow exponentially within the next few years.